This handbook - developed under the guidance of the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Facility - is designed to serve as a guide for champions and practitioners engaged in the task of mainstreaming poverty-environment linkages into national development planning. The handbook draws on a substantial body of experience at the country level and the many lessons learned by the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme in working with governments — especially ministries of planning, finance and environment — to support efforts to integrate the complex interrelationships between poverty reduction and improved environmental management into national planning and decision-making.

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Cover pages: Front cover, Back cover

Table of Contents, Acknowledgements and Foreword

• Purpose
• Target Audience
• Structure

Chapter 2 - Understanding Poverty-Environment Mainstreaming

• Defining Poverty-Environment Mainstreaming
• Exploring Poverty-Environment Linkages
• Importance of Natural Capital to the Wealth of Low-Income Countries
• Importance of Climate Change for Poverty-Environment Mainstreaming

• Programmatic Approach
• Role of Stakeholders and the Development Community

Chapter 4 - Finding the Entry Points and Making the Case

• Preliminary Assessments: Understanding the Poverty-Environment Linkages
• Preliminary Assessments: Understanding the Governmental, Institutional and Political Contexts
• Raising Awareness and Building Partnerships
• Evaluating Institutional and Capacity Needs
• Setting Up Working Mechanisms for Sustained Mainstreaming

Chapter 5 - Mainstreaming Poverty-Environment Linkages into Policy Processes

• Using Integrated Ecosystem Assessments to Collect Country-Specific Evidence
• Using Economic Analyses to Collect Country-Specific Evidence
• Influencing Policy Processes
• Developing and Costing Policy Measures 
• Strengthening Institutions and Capacities: Learning by Doing

Chapter 6- Meeting the Implementation Challenge

• Including Poverty-Environment Issues in the National Monitoring System
• Budgeting and Financing for Poverty-Environment Policy Measures
• Supporting Policy Measures at the National, Sector and Subnational Levels
• Strengthening Institutions and Capacities: Establishing Poverty-Environment Mainstreaming as Standard Practice

Chapter 7- Conclusion and Way Forward

Abbreviations, Acronyms, Glossary, References, Index